Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) looks to have returned some impressive numbers for the UFC 219: “Cyborg vs. Holm” pay-per-view (PPV) event, which took place last month (Dec. 30, 2017) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring “Prelims” on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
UFC 219 was headlined by the women’s featherweight title fight pitting reigning division queenpin Cris Cyborg opposite former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm. Elsewhere on the card, Khabib Nurmagomedov reclaimed his spot in the 155-pound title chase by destroying Brazilian striker Edson Barboza.
The result was 340,000 to 380,000 PPV buys, according to MMA Fighting, based on preliminary returns. That figure would suggest — much like this did — that female fighters can draw sizable numbers without Ronda Rousey, who walked away from combat sports roughly one year back.
It also proves how badly UFC missed the boat on Cyborg, who could have been pulling big numbers for Dana White and Co. had they treated her like a source of income and not like Wanderlei Silva in a dress.
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